Also called neo-Pentecostalism, this movement emerged in the
1960s and caught fire in the 1970s, although the fires have since cooled.
Following in the American tradition of revivalism, it is concretely linked
with and shares "classical" pentecostalism's enthusiastic and
experiential approach to religious practice. In particular, charismatics
share with their pentecostal cousins a belief in "baptism of the Holy
Spirit" and the related "gifts of the Spirit" such as
speaking in tongues (glossolalia), healing, and prophecy (charismatic
is from the Greek charismata , meaning "gifts"; see Acts
2 and 1 Corinthians 12-14). However, while pentecostalism is a group of
independent sects formed by schism, the charismatic movement remains a
revitalization movement within established churches, seeking to integrate
Spirit baptism and gifts into the organization and practices of mainline
Protestant denominations as well as the Roman Catholic Church. Although
initially there was some experimentation with independent "covenant
communities," the predominant organizational form currently is the
parish-based prayer group.

History

A notable aspect of the charismatic
movement is that it surfaced early in the two churches that are the most
hierarchically and sacramentally organized, churches in which priests have
traditionally monopolized the "technologies of grace": the
Episcopal Church in 1960 and the Roman Catholic Church in 1967. The roots
of this infusion of pentecostal spirituality into mainline churches are
complex, but one important source can be traced to 1952, when Southern
California dairyman Demos Shakarian's Full Gospel Business Men's
Fellowship International held its first meeting (at which then pentecostal
faith healer Oral Roberts was the guest speaker) and began providing a
space for mainline clergy to interact with pentecostals.

Wider recognition of neo-pentecostalism is
associated with Dennis Bennett, who, while rector of St. Mark's Episcopal
Church in Van Nuys, California, received Spirit baptism and spoke in
tongues while worshiping with a group of charismatic laypersons in 1959.
His resignation in 1960 under pressure from his superiors gained national
attention for the charismatic movement, including coverage in Time
magazine. Bennett was appointed to a stagnant congregation in Seattle,
Washington, where he continued to encourage baptism of the Spirit and
assisted thousands in receiving the charismata (Poloma 1982:14).

The birth of Catholic neo-pentecostalism is
dated to 1967 when a group of faculty—who had been involved with the
Cursillo movement—and students at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh
experienced baptism of the Spirit while on a retreat. The movement quickly
spread to Notre Dame and the University of Michigan, and at its peak the
"Catholic Charismatic Renewal" (CCR) encompassed hundreds of
thousands of Roman Catholics and had made contact with perhaps as many as
4 to 7 million more. The movement generally embraces orthodox Christian
teachings, stressing particularly Christ's divinity, and the church
hierarchy up to and including Pope John Paul II has been supportive of the
CCR—or has co-opted it, depending on one's perspective.

Sources of
Neo-Pentecostalism

Although Pentecostalism has been analyzed
in terms of classical deprivation theory—Pentecostals being drawn from
"the disinherited" economic classes—the social sources of the
charismatic movement within mainline churches do not suggest a similar
explanation. Early pentecostals were indeed predominantly marginalized in
the new, urban, industrial social order; neo-pentecostals, in contrast,
are typically white, suburban, well educated, and of middling
socioeconomic status. In this sense, it might be said that the charismatic
movement is pentecostalism for the middle classes. Some have suggested,
following Charles Glock, that the deprivation that leads people to
enthusiastic religion such as neo-pentecostalism need not be exclusively
socioeconomic but can also be psychic, ethical, or health related. Neitz
(1987:251), by contrast, argues that conversion to the charismatic renewal
is based less on deprivation—unless deprivation is defined so
broadly as to lose its explanatory power—than on "a practical and
rational process of assessing the claims of competing belief systems in
the light of daily experience with an eye toward particular goals."
Neitz suggests that the renewal movement emerged as a result of the same
"cultural crises" that produced the "self-awareness"
movement of the 1970s: It is a reaction to the "iron cage" of
modern, rationalized life experienced by those middle-class Americans most
exposed to its sterility.

Moral, Social,
and Political Views

Morally, charismatics see society as being
in a state of crisis to which spiritual activities such as prayer and
worship are the appropriate response. While they bear a surface
resemblance to classical pentecostals in this respect, they differ
considerably in the details. Charismatics diverge from pentecostals in
their liberalism on issues such as abortion, divorce, premarital sex, and
homosexuality; they are, however, more conservative than Americans
generally on these same issues.

Although charismatics seem to be
apolitical, even narcissistic (Neitz 1987), it simply may be the case that
social factors other than religious affiliation explain charismatic
political opinions better than religious beliefs and practices. That is,
in the political sphere, they may simply mirror those who fit their
demographic profile (Poloma 1982:222). More research is needed if this
issue is to be addressed adequately.